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Swedish Midsummer – How I Celebrate

Swedes all over Love midsummer (you might have seen Alicia Vikander on Jimmy Fallon..? If not, we’ve included the clip for you below). There are many ways to celebrate, and this week, our Thérèse shares her way of celebrating. Over to you, T!

” Hej! I am Thérèse and I’m located in Stockhome. I recently moved to London from Sweden. It doesn’t matter where I am this time of year – I always celebrate midsummer.

Photo credit: Conny Fridh/imagebank.sweden.se

Midsummer for me is all about having fun, celebrating with friends and eat a lot of food. I often celebrate the holiday on the actual midsummer eve (this year – 24th June) ‘midsommarafton’ – but it really depends on when my friends are free to celebrate.

Growing up I spent most of my summers in the summerhouse in the west of Sweden, and we would usually go to the closest local midsummer event to celebrate there. These days the place of the celebration varies – either in a park or at someone’s house – usually the friend with the best garden. One thing remains the same wherever though – flower garlands in my hair. It’s essential.

What do we eat at midsummer?

Food is of course very important during midsummer. My friends and I often prepare a buffet together. We cook most of the food ourselves but we usually buy some things, like nibbles, ready made. That way we can nibble whilst we cook and take our time with it. We usually get snacks like sour cream and onion crisps, dill crisps, cheese corn snacks and some beer to drink.

The buffet has certain ‘rules’ to it – the first round is all about herring and bread. Having a good range of herring is essential. My favourites have always been the mustard herring, onion herring and the herring in roe, but a good midsummer spread usually includes even more – such as dill herring or herring in curry (You can browse our range of herring here).

We also have a variety of crispbread, rye bread and polar bread – as well as new potatoes boiled in a lot of dill. We eat the potatoes sliced up on your bread of choice with a bit of herring. With this we also serve cured or smoked salmon; seafood salad is also always included in our buffet. I like to top my salmon sandwiches with dill and mustard sauce.

In addition to the herring and fish, we often have a barbecue with different meats, spicy sausages and new-potato salad and chips with Vasterbotten cheese – lovely with a fresh dip! To drink we have lagers (beer) and aquavit. Of course, in true Swedish fashion, we have to sing some drinking songs.

Finally we’ll have a lovely strawberry cake (we have a nice recipe – click through to view) and perhaps some of our favourite sweets and chocolates. If we feel really merry we might search for a midsummer pole to do some embarrassing little frog dancing around.”

Sometimes, when we want to giggle, we watch this clip of our Jonas in Hyde Park making the poor journalist from The Telegraph Newspaper try Surstromming fermented herring.

It’s worth the 3 minutes of your life.

Surstromming is fermented herring – the smell is so bad when you open it that people only ever do so outdoors. It is very strong. However, it is a delicacy in Sweden and is eaten with flatbread wraps, potatoes and sourcream.

NOTE: Always store the tin chilled, never open inside, the tin will squirt when you open it due to pressure – and it is illegal to take onto most airplanes. So, now you know.

It is no secret that we Nordics absolutely love aquavit. Okay, yes, it’s strong stuff, but we only do drink it when we’re having smörgåsbord and we’re usually pretty careful with the stuff.

The Nordics have been drinking aquavit for centuries – since the 15th century, in fact. The tipple is usually around 40% alcohol and flavoured with strong herbs such as dill, caraway and anis – making them a perfect partner for pickled fish, such as herring.

Tomorrow Saturday 29th November we’re honoured to be joined by the all-knowing Aquavit expert Jon, who will be on site from midday onwards, offering helpful teachings and tastings to all our customers about a range of different aquavits. In fact, we did similar taste training at the cafe this week and we learnt a lot about not only the Aquavits that we serve at the cafe but also different types available on the market. Jon is bringing several aquavit – and will be making some aquavit based cocktails, too.

Aquavit is usually drunk ice cold but when you do the tasting without food, you sip it instead of down it all in one – and this is why Rebekka, Trine and Joanna look a bit shocked in the picture as it is a lot stronger in flavour this way! Just remember, when you serve it at home, pop the bottle in the freezer for a good few hours before hand and serve the shots – with food – and you don’t need to sip.

If you are popping by on Saturday, join our competition, too: Everybody who buys any aquavit tomorrow at the cafe will be entered into a competition to win 2 extra bottles (A 700ml bottle of Hammer Aquavit AND a 700ml bottle of Jubilæums Aquavit) – winner will be drawn at end of the day and be notified by phone to come pick up their extra stash. Usual rules apply, no alternative prize.

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